RAF Scotland A-B

• Opened: 1980
• Coming under RAF control when it opened, the radar station is located around 11 miles west of Lochmaddy on the Outer Hebrides island, initially called RAF Benbecula after the flying site located in South Uist during WWII (see below). The radar site is part of the UK Air Surveillance and Control System (ASACS) based at RAF Boulmer in Northumberland, the late 1990s seeing the site downgraded to RRH (remote radio head) status.

• Opened: 1952
• Located two miles south of Peterhead in Aberdeenshire, RAF Buchan opened as an Air Defence Radar Unit, parent station to RRH Benbecula, and later RRH Saxa Vord in Shetland. At the end of the ‘first’ Cold War, Buchan became a Control and Reporting Centre (CRC), part of ASACS, monitoring air traffic around UK airspace, the station responsible for airspace north of Newcastle, working with allies in Scandinavia. Around 2000, the MoD downgraded Buchan to become a RRH, effectively ceasing to be a RAF station in 2004, the site remaining in operation, collecting data as part of ASACS centred at RAF Boulmer in Northumberland.

• Opened: 1933
• Closed: 1943; transferred to the Royal Navy, now Glasgow International Airport
• Flying began at the site around nine miles west of Glasgow city centre in the early 1930s, No. 602 (City of Glasgow) Squadron arriving with Westland Wapitis, the biplane replaced by another biplane, the Hawker Hart, in 1934. By the end of 1936, Avro Ansons were carrying out coastal patrol missions from the location, wartime seeing a torpedo training unit (TTU) formed, RAF and Royal Navy crews trained under RAF Coastal Command. During the early part of WWII, the Admiralty was granted lodger facilities, before in August 1943 the site was transferred from No. 19 Group RAF to the Royal Navy, becoming RNAS Abbotsinch; the mid-1960s saw the site developed as Glasgow Airport.

             Now Glasgow International Airport, Abbotsinch started life as an RAF airfield.

• Opened: 1954
• Closed: 2010
• The site on the western edge of the Isle of Lewis was used as a look-out point for centuries, WWI seeing a hut built at Aird Uig for locals enlisted in the Auxiliary Coastguard Services to keep watch for enemy ships. The 1950s saw a radar station established at the location, part of the ROTOR programme aimed at countering the threat of Soviet bombers, operating in the role until 1974, then utilised for NATO maritime communications, the RAF leaving the site in around 2000; NATO continued to use Aird Uig as a communications centre for the next decade until its military role ended in 2010.

• Opened: 1924 (approx.)
• Closed: 1986
• Starting life in the 1920s as a flying boat site, it was initially home to the RAF’s Flying Boat Development Flight, handed an experimental role which included locating herring shoals from the air to aid fishermen. It became RAF Invergordon in the late 1930s, Nos. 201, 209 and 228 Squadrons arriving for short periods, the start of WWII seeing the station around 14 miles north of Inverness, on the north banks of the Cromarty Firth, becoming home to the Seaplane Training Squadron until early in 1940. Flying at the site was limited during the early part of the war, before No. 4 (Coastal) Operational Training Unit (OTU), arrived in June 1941, Short Sunderlands and Consolidated Catalinas operating. Expansion led to a change of name to RAF Alness in 1943, the station placed under care and maintenance in January 1947, with an occasional aircraft using the slipway until the last RAF flying boat departed in 1957; No. 1100 Marine Craft Unit (MCU) remained at the location for several decades before Alness closed for good in 1986.

• Opened: 1940
• Closed: 1952
• A site around two miles north east of Annan served as a sub-site for No. 18 Maintenance Unit (MU) during WWII, later becoming home to No 55 OTU, training fighter pilots. Pilots practised flying low over the Solway Firth ahead of missions crossing the Channel to hit targets in northern France. No. 55 MU was redesignated No. 4 Tactical Exercise Unit (TEU) early in 1944, then No. 3 TEU, before transferring to RAF Aston Down in Gloucestershire in July 1944, Annan becoming a sub-site for No. 14 MU until its closure, the site later developed as Chapelcross Nuclear Power Station.

• Opened: 1918
• Closed: 1919
• A mooring-out station was established around 12 miles west of Montrose during WWI, coming under the control of No. 22 Group, used for non-rigid airships base at RAF Longside in Aberdeenshire (see later), named after the local railway station.

• Opened: 1917
• Closed: 1919
• A WWI training centre was located at Ayr racecourse, No. 1 School of Aerial Fighting based there for a time, the site establishing links with nearby RAF Turnberry (see later), with Avro 504s among the aircraft operated. Military flying ceased early in 1919 with horse racing returning, a separate site in the coastal town selected for an airfield during WWII (see next).

• Opened: 1941
• Closed: 1957
• Also known as Heathfield, a RAF station opened in April 1941 at the location just south of Prestwick St Cuthbert Golf Club as a site for day and night fighters, providing cover for Glasgow and central Scotland, Boulton Paul Defiants and Bristol Beaufighters among the aircraft operating. The station also was a centre for fighter training ahead of D-Day, switching to come under the control of the Fleet Air Arm (FAA) soon after, when it was known as HMS Wagtail. In the 1950s it was used by US forces as a storage centre, before their focus switched to Prestwick in the late 1950s.

• Opened: 1942
• Closed: 1957
• A satellite for RAF Grangemouth (see later) when it opened in March 1942, the station midway between Dunfermline and Perth, west of Loch Leven, was utilised by the Spitfires of No. 58 OTU, the unit disbanding in June 1944 by which time it had been renamed No. 2 TEU, Balado Bridge then used as a relief landing ground (RLG) by No. 9 (Pilots) Advanced Flying Unit (PAFU). Flying continued post-war, mainly civilian light aircraft and gliders, but its military role was more destructive, the site becoming a breakers yard for hundreds of surplus FAA aircraft. After it was decommissioned in 1957, part of the site became a communications ground station for NATO, the traditional ‘golf ball’ structure built, that role ending in the mid-2000s, the location most famous recently as an open-air concert venue.

• Opened: 1916 (approx.)
• Closed: 1943
• The site around 15 miles west of Montrose was used as a RLG during WWI, and for a time during WWII its grass airfield was utilised for forced landing practice by No. 8 SFTS (Service Flying Training School) and No. 2 FIS (Flying Instructors School), based at RAF Montrose.

• Opened: 1940
• Closed: 1945
• Similar to Balhall, Balmain was used by No. 8 SFTS and No. 2 FIS to practice forced landings, the airfield located just west of the town of Laurencekirk, ten miles north of Montrose.

• Opened: 1943
• Closed: 1946
• The station at Banff, also known as Boyndie, midway between Lossiemouth and Fraserburgh, opened late in WWII, built as a Coastal Command centre, coming under the control of No. 21 Group, with No. 14 PAFU moving in soon after it opened in April 1943. Around 1500 pilots were trained at Banff in a year, and when No. 14 PAFU departed, Nos. 144, 235 and 404 Squadrons arrived, operating Mosquitos and Bristol Beaufighters, part of Strike Wing of Coastal Command, carrying out anti-shipping duties, and later proving successful against German U-boats. Banff closed in 1946, reopening in 1947 for as time as a bombing range for FAA aircraft based at Lossiemouth, civil aircraft continuing to operate until the early 1980s, with limited flying still taking place today. RAF Bannf control tower

                               

• Opened: 1918
• Closed: 1918
• The beach at Belhaven, around 25 miles east of Edinburgh, was used as a landing ground from June to September 1918 for torpedo dropping trials undertaken in the Firth of Forth, Sopwith Cuckoos operating from the sands.

• Opened: 1941
• Closed: 1946; now Benbecula Airport
• A civilian airfield was established in the north west of the Isle of Benbecula in the late 1930s, the RAF taking over the Outer Hebrides site in around 1941 when units under the control of No. 15 Group Coastal Command began flying Wellingtons and Lockheed Hudsons, protecting shipping convoys from German U-boats. At its peak, several thousand troops were located at the station and across the island, the site returning to civilian operations post war.

• Opened: 1939
• Closed: 1966
• A non-flying RAF station was built in 1939 just north east of Glasgow, housing No. 18 (Balloon) Squadron and personnel from No. 15 MU, and also utilised as an overnight camp for RAF units transferring to the north of Scotland. Post war, the site was used by both the RAF and as a training school for the Royal Military Police, the 1960s seeing Bishopbriggs become the base for 388 Signals Unit (RAF) before its closure and development as a prison.

• Opened: 1941
• Closed: 1945
• Located on the Black Isle peninsula, the station around 15 miles north of Inverness was used as a satellite landing ground (SLG), and for aircraft storage, utilised by No. 46 MU based at Lossiemouth, and No. 45 MU based at Kinloss. A number of fighter aircraft were stored there, the site, also known as Blackstand, returning to agricultural use post war; a Super Robin hangar built for aircraft storage during WWII is still used as a barn to this day.

• Opened: 1917
• Closed: 1918
• An airfield was established on the outskirts of the town of Dalmellington, 14 miles south east of Ayr, during WWI, records indicating it was planned for use by the School of Aerial Gunnery in conjunction with the Loch Doon Gunnery School nearby (see later). However, there is no confirmation that it was ever used, the exposed location of the area unsuitable for the role that was envisaged, with reports the project was abandoned due to spiralling costs.

• Opened: 1940
• Closed: 1946
• A flying boat station on the east side of Loch Indaal on the Isle of Islay was created during WWII, Nos. 119, 246 and 422 (Royal Canadian) Squadrons operating a range of aircraft including Short Sunderlands and Consolidated Catalinas.

• Opened: 1941
• Closed: 1947
• A RLG was used by a range of units during WWII, No. 14 PAFU and No. 19 OTU among those utilising the site around ten miles north east of Inverness.

• Opened: 1940
• Closed: 1945
• An emergency landing ground was created at the site around five miles west of Thurso, probably the most northerly airfield on the British mainland in use during WWII, the site utilised by aircraft based at RAF Castletown.

• Opened: 1914
• Closed: 1919
• The exact location of the landing ground in the town just east of Dundee is unclear, but an airfield was used during WWI by the RNAS and the RAF, closing in 1919.

• Opened: 1940
• Closed: 1945
• A RLG at the site 11 miles north east of Perth was used by the Tiger Moths of No. 11 Elementary Flying Training School (EFTS) based at Scone (see later), the WWI-era biplanes used to train thousands of pilots during the Second World War.

• Opened: 1942
• Closed: 1948
• Records indicate that a grass airfield, just a couple of hundred yards south of Burrelton in Perthshire, was also used as a RLG by No. 11 EFTS.

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